- Title: Belgian Holocaust survivor acts out his story on stage to mark 90th birthday
- Date: 4th October 2021
- Summary: RIJMENAM, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 3, 2021) (REUTERS) HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, SIMON GRONOWSKI, AND HIS FRIEND WHO GREW UP IN A FAMILY OF NAZI SYMPATHISERS, KOENRAAD TINEL, WALKING INTO CROWD AFTER PERFORMANCE OF OPERA "PUSH" BASED ON GRONOWSKI'S ESCAPE FROM DEPORTATION DURING WORLD WAR TWO, GRONOWSKI AND TINEL EMBRACING AS AUDIENCE APPLAUDS GRONOWSKI AND TINEL AS AUDIENCE APPLAUDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, SIMON GRONOWSKI, SAYING: "My message is not a message of sadness, but of hope and happiness."
- Embargoed: 18th October 2021 13:28
- Keywords: Belgium Holocaust arts music opera performance resistance
- Location: RIJMENAM AND BOORTMEERBEEK, BELGIUM
- City: RIJMENAM AND BOORTMEERBEEK, BELGIUM
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Music
- Reuters ID: LVA001EXQTHLL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In a rundown old factory in Belgium, Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski celebrated his upcoming 90th birthday on Sunday by starring in an opera inspired by his life - a history of love, faith and forgiveness overcoming the darkest tragedy.
Gronowski was 11 years old and living Brussels when in 1943 Nazis put him, his mother and sister on a train bound for Auschwitz, the infamous death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The train was briefly stopped by three Belgian resistance fighters in Boortmeerbeek, 30 kilometres (19 miles) northeast of Brussels. In the ensuing chaos, Gronowski jumped off. He went on to survive World War Two in hiding. His family perished at Auschwitz, where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed.
After keeping quiet for decades about his past, Gronowski decided in the 2000s to write a memoir.
British composer Howard Moody was so inspired by Gronowski's story after meeting him at a theatre performance several years ago that he wrote an opera based on Gronowski's life and his extraordinary friendship with with Koenraad Tinel, the son of Flemish Nazis whose brother had served as the prison guard of Gronowski's family.
The opera, "PUSH", has been performed several times in Belgium and the UK, but to mark Gronowski's 90th birthday on Oct. 12, Moody put on a special performance on Sunday in which both Gronowski and Tinel appeared, playing themselves.
The performance was staged in an old furniture factory near Boortmeerbeek, where Gronowski jumped off the train nearly 80 ears ago, to a rapturous reception from an audience of 300.
PUSH mixes classic arias with jazz inserts and choral singing. In one grand scene set on the deck of a train carriage, the choir - collectively impersonating Gronowski's mother - pushes little Simon off the convoy.
(Production: Jeremy Audouard, Johnny Cotton, Clement Rossignol) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
